Sports round-up

Super Bowl: The Super Bowl between New York Giants and New England Patriots drew a record 111.3 million viewers in the US, edging out last year’s game. Last year’s Super Bowl, between Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, drew 111.0 million US viewers. The NBC television network, which broadcast Sunday’s game, won 21-17 by the Giants, said it was the “most-watched show in US television history” and the audience for the Super Bowl had increased for the seventh straight year.

Olympic Games: The Russian government has announced cash incentives for those athletes who win medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in London this summer. Reports said that an Olympic gold medal winner would receive €100,000. Silver medalists will get €63,000, while bronze medal winners will pocket a prize purse of €43,000.

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Tennis: Bernard Tomic (picture) said he was disappointed to have been caught up in another controversy involving his high-powered sports car. The 19-year-old is due to face court next week after being charged with two traffic offences following a recent stand-off with police outside his home. He was fined twice in the space of an hour driving his BMW M3 just days after being knocked out of the Australian Open and police allege he refused to stop when asked to pull over a third time.

Rugby Sevens: The Rugby Sevens World Series is to expand as it builds up to the sport’s inclusion at the Olympic Games in 2016. The number of teams that will take part in each event in the World Series will increase for 2012-13 from the so-called 12 “core” sides to 15, the IRB said. The Hong Kong Sevens, from March 23 to 25, will double up as a qualification tournament to determine which will be the three new teams competing in all events in the 2012-13 series.

Basketball: Former Slovenia coach Memi Becirovic was appointed to the same role as Iranian handler, the Slovenian Basketball Association announced. He will travel to Iran in April. Becirovic will not only coach the national team but perform in Iran expert duties, scouting for players, watching over the youth programme, choosing selectors of younger teams, lead training seminars for Iranian coaches and other tasks.